Quick Evaluation of Small Body Gravitation

Numerical integration of ordinary differential equations resulting from the gravitation of nearby celestial small bodies is the subject of this thesis. We present three methods that alleviate the computational burden of evaluating gravitational force near a small body: (i) adaptive polynomial interpolation, (ii) adaptive polynomial least squares approximation, and (iii) acceleration via specialized, commodity hardware. Each method is evaluated on its quantitative accuracy with respect to a reference model, and its observance of qualitative features of gravity. We conclude with a summary of methods available for computing small body gravitation, and recommendations for different scenarios.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Colombi, Andrew C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anil N. Hirani

• Computer Science

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3337742

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/81826